NOT ON MY WATCH PHIL

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I decided that Phil Kessel was going to be a part of this team no matter what, ditto for Henrik Lundqvist. I wanted to make a team that would be competitive right now, but also into the future, while players like Datsyuk and the Sedins were tempting, I chose to ignore them in favour of younger players. As a result Henrik Lundqvist and Justin Williams are the earliest drafted players on my team, from the 2001 draft.

I tried to build a strong Defensive team with an emphasis on two-way centers capable of driving possession. I wanted to have a young, fast, tough team with most of the key contributors locked up relatively long term.

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What's better than a GDT? A GDT full of .gifs! 

We here at PPP sure do love our .gifs. They say so much more than words. Sometimes it can be a hassle to track down the appropriate one. To that end I have taken it upon myself to create a small collection of my favourites for you to use. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility, don't abuse this.

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In hockey, as in life people do irrational things and hold erroneous beliefs. This truth manifests itself daily in the MSM, on Twitter, and around the blogosphere in general. No one is beyond reproach. It's not our fault. Our brains make mistakes that affect our judgment and our ability to properly synthesize information. This leads us to believe and advocate crazy things. That's the bad news. The good news is that we all make the same mistakes and that these defects have been studied and the implications recognized. A lot of books have been written that detail why we do and believe the things we do.[1] As I read I am struck by how many cognitive biases relate to our experience as fans and observers. I have been mulling writing about this for a while and owe some inspiration to Kent Wilson as his work has been an example of what this type of post would look like. Derek Zona over at Copper and Blue also wrote and excellent article about confirmation bias and its influence on our opinions about players.[2] 

Join me after the jump for an examination of the most prevalent bias in hockey. 

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Eliminated from playoff contention in the last week of the season. In the words of Bill-O, you can't explain that. It's safe to say that a litany of things have happened this season that nobody saw coming. From the solid contributions of Crabb, Boyce, and Brent to the emergence of Optimus Reim as a possible goaltending saviour. In the end the Leafs were what most of us thought they would be, a playoff bubble team. How they got there was unpredictable and the most exciting stretch of hockey I have seen from this team since the lock-out. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We can all breathe a little easier and lift our heads a little higher. 

In honour of the Leafs I penned a manifesto. My inspiration came from this template that has been floating around the inter-pipes. Take a look, and use the template to create your own. 

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Airing of (mostly) Non- Leaf Related Grievances:

 

Taking the long view of things I can legitimately say I feel better about the future now than I did last Christmas. The last remnants of the JFJ era have been shipped out of town, Burke had a successful draft despite lacking a 1st round pick-of which you may or may not have been aware-, our core is young and shows signs of improvement, and I remain confident that some valuable pieces can be brought on board in the future. Having said all of that I also have eyes and have had the misfortune of pointing them in the direction of the television during a Leafs game or two. I’m not sure if clustercuss is a strong enough word to describe the season thus far. We all know the details so there’s no point in rehashing them here; and as dauost pointed out a lot of grievances have already been aired. So I’m going to try and air some less common grievances. It’s always been tough being a Leafs’ fan; these things have made it worse.

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I have really enjoyed the debate surrounding Mount Puckmore. It has been an entertaining diversion from the off-season speculation and an excellent lesson in the history of the Maple Leafs franchise. I am inclined to agree with those who believe that Mount Puckmore should only have one post-1967 face, and that it should be Mats Sundin. I believe this because I think this exercise should be about giving credit to some players who have been lost to history for the average fan. That being said my Mount Puckmore will completely contradict what I just wrote.

My Mount Puckmore has been commissioned with a very specific purpose; attracting tourists to South Dakota, wait no, that doesn't sound right. Oh yes, it has been commissioned to select the players who most closely resemble each President on the real Mount Rushmore. Who are our Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt?

In order to decide which player should represent which President we need to know why each President is up there. Independent of their accomplishments these particular men are on Mount Rushmore because in order to receive funding from the Federal Government President Coolidge stipulated that along with Washington two Republicans (Lincoln and Roosevelt) and one Democrat (Jefferson) be portrayed on the monument. I won't digress into a rant about how the current Republican Party is able to take advantage of the late 19th and early 20th century American political landscape to claim that Lincoln and Roosevelt embodied the ideals of their party because this is neither the time nor the place, just know that it bothers me. So, much like us the sculpture was defined by certain parameters. The next question is, why these particular Presidents. The short answer is that these Presidents were chosen for their accomplishments in two key areas: preserving the Republic, and expanding the territory of the United States. In order to chose a player to represent each President I have distilled the contributions of each one into a single idea or accomplishment that I feel defines their inclusion on the real Mount Rushmore, feel free to argue with me about it.

So with all that in mind I present to you my incarnation of Mount Puckmore. (From left to right)

 

Kennedy

Fletcher

Gilmour

Sundin

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Editor's Note: The 2010 Hockey Hall of Fame class will be announced tomorrow. Last year Doug Gilmour just missed the cut but Plea From A Cat Named Felix makes the convincing case that Gilmour's time is now.

As has been frequently mentioned in the past few days, Doug Gilmour should be inducted into the Hall of Fame this year. The fact that he already is not, is something of a minor travesty and miscarriage of justice. One of the impediments to his enshrinement in the past has been the presence of first-ballot players. This year lacks any undisputable first-ballot stars so it’s time to right this terrible wrong.

Gilmour has always been my favourite Leaf, which causes me to look at him with blue-tinted glasses. When I started thinking about this post I thought that I would have to work really hard at making his stats look as good as possible and make a really strong and impassioned argument. After about three minutes of research I became irate that he was not in the Hall already. It’s clear from his stats that Gilmour is one of the best NHL players yet to be enshrined in the Hall. His absence is a national embarrassment. Seriously Hockey Hall of Fame, Come on!

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The last few years have been trying times for Leafs’ fans. We’ve had to endure a long playoff drought, Andrew Raycroft, JFJ, and Vesa Toskala. For a large majority of us these are the darkest days we have seen. We are too young to remember anything before 1993. We have heard and read of how bad the Ballard years were thanks to the work of those fans who remember, but I think most of us cannot appreciate just how bad it was.

Thanks to the Toronto Star archives we can gain insight into what it was like to be a Leaf, fan or player during this time.

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A relic is an object that was once connected with the body of a saint, martyr, or other holy person. The concept of relics began with the early Christians. They believed that the bodies of the dead, and by extension anything that they had touched or had touched them while alive or dead, had magical qualities or powers. Not only did these objects have innate special powers, they could be passed on to other people through what was called "beneficent contagion", think of it like a lucky rabbits foot, or playoff beard. In fact relics were so contagious that one merely had to be in the presence of a relic to receive its benefits. As Leafs' fans we all have at least one or two relics. Exactly what type of relic do you have, read after the jump to find out.

 

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Here is my entry into the contest. 

It was tough narrowing it down to just five. I really want one of those t-shirts.

V: EA Sports' NHL Series:

Ever since my oh-so-generous parents bought me a Sega Genesis I have been addicted to EA Sports' NHL games. (Let's forget the unpleasantness that was Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey.) I remember playing hours and hours of NHL 94, I can still hear the organ music in my head now. Since then I have been addicted. My heyday came in the early 2000s when Owen Nolan graced the cover of NHL 2001. I had an N64, so I was forced to play on my computer, the graphics were terrible but I loved it. I have been late to every video console, I currently own a game-cube. That has not stopped me from playing. I have spent hours with my buddy, former roommate, and fellow PPP member Fleet Fox (all the same guy) updating the Rosters on both NHL 05 and NHL 06. We have created every player on the Leafs team over the last three years and made the appropriate roster moves throughout the league. It was a treat finding Wallin and Shoestrings had already been made for us. All in all we've been able to mirror the current league fairly well, it has been time well spent. I plan on buying a PS3 as a graduation present to myself, so this summer I will be able to renew my love with the series once again.

 

 

 

IV: Witnessing History:

 

I think that it's safe to say that we all have at least one "Where you were when moments?"

For some moments the connection is to global events, something like 9/11. In Canada hockey provides the opportunity for that type of moment. Some are shared only by a team's particular fan base like when Gary Roberts scored in triple overtime to beat the Senators or when Sundin scored to send the game to overtime against the Hurricanes are two that come immediately to my mind. Others are shared by a nation, watching Joe Sackic win Gold in 2002, and most recently Crosby scoring in Vancouver. These moments are shared cultural experiences, they will bond generations of Canadians together. Hockey is the only thing in Canada capable of doing that, other than poutine.

 

 

 

III: I'm an Atheist:

 

I don't believe in god. I don't go to church. But I do believe that there should be a time every week set aside from the rigorous of daily life to relax, spend time with your loved ones, and drink beer and eat chicken wings. Sometimes there should even be 3 such nights a week. The Leafs really are like a religion to me. In this analogy PPP and the Barilkosphere act like the bible. Much like deeper understanding of the sermon is achieved by bible study; time spent on PPP helps make sense of seasons like this one. When you think about it they really are similar. I've invested a great deal of my time, energy, and faith in an object that I have absolutely no control over and can never fully comprehend. The only difference is that salvation is tangible as a Leafs fan. I'll take one Stanley Cup

over ever-lasting life in Heaven any day of the week, and twice on Saturday's.

 

II: Doug Gilmour:

 

My childhood heros were Bret the Hitman Hart and Doug Gilmour, I defy anyone to show me two better ones. One day in 1994 I got to meet Gilmour, suffice it to say I can remember the whole thing to this day. We had been at Maple Leafs Gardens early in the day attending a special event where we got to skate on the rink. We were also promised the opportunity to meet Doug Gilmour. I was elated. I even got to bring a friend. I brought everything I could find that was capable of being signed by him. Unfortunately the meet and greet was a handshake as the pushed you along the line and down one of the escalators. I can still remember looking back tears in my eyes because our meeting had been so brief. Dejected, I was not much in the mood for skating. We went across the street to "Gardoonies" or whatever the restaurant was called, I think he had some loose affiliation with it. The place was deserted except for Doug Gilmour and some blonde he was with. The next 30 minutes were spent taking photos with myself, my friend, and my sister. He signed about 15 different items for us. He was the nicest guy ever. My dad even wrote into the paper to say how nice it was that such a big star was so down to earth and friendly. It was the best day of my childhood hands down. Even now I have the picture of he and I on my fridge

 

I: Hereditary Fanship (or My Grandpa):

 

Everyone has a story of how they came to love the game. Most of those stories involve a loved one who introduced us to the game and nurtured our fanship. For me that man was my Grandpa. He was a die-hard Leafs fan who taught me everything about being a Leaf fan; mainly hating the Habs and Red ?Wings and drinking beer while lying on the couch. I can remember going along with him to his Old Timer games at the Thompson area at U.W.O. The place smelled like something fierce, and only when I was older did I realize that half of them were hammered while they played. My Grandpa played goal, his nickname was Leaky, his hero was Gump Worsely, and he kept a beehive corn syurp bottle filled with vodka and orange juice atop his net. Weekend visits to my grandparents meant a few hours of the Bugs Bunny and Tweety show followed by Hockey Night in Canada. I spent the entire time perched atop his bulging belly captivated by the Leafs. I will be a Leaf fan forever because of him. Watching the Leafs always makes me think of him. He passed away in 1999, I'm thankful he never had to endure watching Andrew Raycroft or Vesa Toskala stand between the pipes.

 

 

After reading the article on MLHS about the importance of winning one goal games I decided to take a look at how the Leafs have faired in the overtime and shootout this season. This is my first attempt at a Fanpost, be gentle.

 

I knew that the results were not going to be pretty, and they aren't. However it's also important to note that it could be a lot worse.

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